Exhibition history

1975

Turner in the British Museum: Drawings and Watercolours, Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum, London, May 1975–February 1976 (19, reproduced).

1980

Turner and the Sublime, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, November 1980–January 1981, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, February–April, British Museum, London, May–September (4, reproduced in colour).

This exceptionally complete and fully realised work, in the series of large colour studies that Turner painted on the spot in Snowdonia in 1799, nevertheless may not have been executed entirely sur le motif. A pencil outline sketch in the contemporary Dolbadarn sketchbook (Tate D02023; Turner Bequest XLVI 19a) records the subject almost exactly, suggesting that he may have finished it later, in his lodging, using both the sketch and a preliminary outline or lay-in as guides.

The sheet is inadvertently recorded twice in Finberg’s 1909 Inventory, being listed also as Turner Bequest XXXVI J;1 a corresponding Tate accession number (D01104) was assigned and subsequently cancelled.